


Think pink

by Terfle



Category: Wicked - Schwartz/Holzman
Genre: Awkwardness, Gen, School
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-24
Updated: 2017-10-24
Packaged: 2019-01-22 09:28:18
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 586
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12478468
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Terfle/pseuds/Terfle
Summary: Galinda introduces the slightly improved Elphaba to the Ozdust ballroom after 'Popular.' But nobody is impressed & Elphaba is left feeling like she always does. Only Fiyero notices





	Think pink

_‘Now, remember, smile your very best. Think pink. And don’t forget to toss toss’_ instructed Galinda. Her companion’s brow creased in concentration, she wasn’t used to this kind of thing.  Galinda pushed her forward and went to socialise with the other society girls. Elphaba stood stock still in the middle of the Ozdust ballroom. The purple lights and bright music spun round her, a thin figure drowning in the middle of all this confusion. She looked around; saw Galinda chatting merrily to the DJ, no help from her. She was on her own.

She made her way to the drinks table, locating it blurrily through the throng of fashionable students. There were a few boys standing there chatting and swigging bottles of beer. They turned to look at her, uninterestedly observing her awkward gait and the way she kept brushing back her hair irritably. Not quite the _toss toss_ Galinda had instructed. This was harder than it looked. She was used to her familiar long plait, not this mane of hair. She grabbed a drink and was about to initiate conversation when an inevitable stumble made its appearance and landed her on her backside straight onto the stool that had been placed next to the table. She flailed around for a second to the obvious amusement of the guys at the table. _‘For Oz sakes!’_ she hissed to herself, oblivious to the hilarity she was causing. She raised her eyes and saw him looking at her, that infuriatingly smug face observing her discomfited moment. She sat back awkwardly and gave him the flicker of a strained smile. She thought she registered a slight change in his face but the streamers were blurring her vision. Looking down at her drink, she saw her reflection on the surface. A pink drink. Galinda would approve of that at least.

 _‘What are you doing down there?’_ As if he needed to ask her that. She daren’t look up. But the sniggers of the others around the table prompted her to do so. _‘It’s close to the drinks table.’_  

Close to the drinks table? What kind of inane excuse was that? Galinda definitely wouldn’t have approved. She stayed there, a wisp in the Ozdust kaleidoscope, the imprint of his gaze fixed on her. She half heartedly tossed her hair aside, tapped her fingers on the side of the stool and resolutely sipped her pink drink. It tasted of marshmallow and candyfloss. He’d never known anyone like her.

That long dark hair had been let loose tonight, with one of Galinda’s impossibly pink flowers pinned in. Other than that she hadn’t made much of an effort. She stood out for the wrong reasons, among the yellows, blues and pinks of the other students. Despite that, there was something magnetic about her. Something that kept him wondering.

But graceful she was not. As she stood up, a group of boys hustled past and sent that fragile pink drink flying, spilling all over that crisp white shirt. All of a sudden she felt helpless in the face of their hoots and jeers coming at her from all sides. He was there in the background watching her anguished eyes, the expression on his face she couldn’t translate. They deserted her there, on the edge of the dance floor, almost empty glass in hand. Fiyero was the only one left. She couldn’t stand him staring at her humiliation.

 She wordlessly walked away from the one person who could have wanted to have understood how she felt.


End file.
